(04-06-2018 10:07 PM)goofus Wrote: I am really surprised they were already playing the championship game in April in 1983. I did not think that started until much later. I know in 1981, the ncaa championship game was supposed to be on the same day as the Oscar's, but Reagon got shot that day and the Oscar's got postponed.

Yes, before 1982 the Oscar's were on a Monday late in March, and so was the NCAA championship game.

Yes, but it's really a minor thing, only about a week's difference. E.g., in 1982, the title game was March 29. This year, it was April 2, four days later.

Not like the NFL, where in the 1970s the Super Bowl was typically around January 20th, and now it's like February 5th.

Unfortunately I was on ship somewhere in the Mediterranean when NC State won that championship. We didn't get much news but sometimes got radio messages with headlines. The messages were not widely distributed but I got a copy because of my job. I normally didn't read them but happened to scan that one. Was shocked to see one line buried in the middle, "NC State wins mens basketball national championship."

(04-07-2018 08:25 AM)Wolfman Wrote: Unfortunately I was on ship somewhere in the Mediterranean when NC State won that championship. We didn't get much news but sometimes got radio messages with headlines. The messages were not widely distributed but I got a copy because of my job. I normally didn't read them but happened to scan that one. Was shocked to see one line buried in the middle, "NC State wins mens basketball national championship."

Just curious OT: That sounds like you were military. If so, IIRC, 1983 was a year in which we suffered major terror bombings in Lebanon, at our embassy and a barracks. Was your ship or unit involved in any of that?

If only Guy Lewis the coach had showed up that day. He let Drexler get 4 first half fouls. All that and they still lost because of a few bad passes, missed free throws and an air ball alley-oop.

Guy Lewis gets all the blame, but the truth is, just as Houston had taken control in the second half (in large part thanks to excellent Lewis adjustments at halftime), Akeem got tired. The mile-high air got to him, he was sucking serious wind, and so it made sense for Lewis to slow the game down. He needed to give him some rest.

It's kind of like a car race, where you've been behind, but then you surge ahead and you obviously should keep the pedal down, but ... you have to make a pit stop. You don't want to do it, but it's a physical reality so you do it.

If doing so then costs you the momentum, and the race, you can't blame the pit stop, because it was a necessity. Had Olajuwon not run out of gas, Houston would have kept surging, and likely won by 15-20. But he got tired.

Let's not also forget, Houston played what was more or less considered to be the championship game two days before, and were in an war with the Doctor's of Dunk. Combine that with the altitude, and fatigue, mental and physical, caught up to them. Had they played NC State in the semi's, I think they win handily. Just my personal opinion.

They should have won handily one way or another, by no fewer than 8 points, which was pretty big in the pre-shot clock, pre-three point line era. They got off to a slow start, let a star get in foul trouble, got even more fatigued than they already were, had to take their biggest star out the game because of that, got sloppy, missed free throws...and after all of that STILL lost on a fluky air ball dunk tip.